The formation of buddy lists based on presence is known generally. U.S. Publication 2007/0288627 entitled “Method for Sensing User Presence For Buddy List Applications” (Abella), for example, discloses a Internet Protocol television (IPTV) client device that provides a buddy list having icons indicating the status of various different types of presence associated with each buddy on the list. In the architecture of Abella, each client device senses the various different types of presence associated with the user and reports this presence information to a server. The server sends buddy list presence status information to other client devices. The various types of presence for which status information is provided in Abella include television presence, telephone presence, physical presence, and presence of shared content. In Abella, the client device updates the status of each buddy on the list based on updated status information provided by the server.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon a careful consideration of the following Detailed Description thereof with the accompanying drawings described below. The drawings may have been simplified for clarity and are not necessarily drawn to scale.